1. Field
Various embodiments relate to a lens barrel assembly and a photographing apparatus including the same, and more particularly, to a lens barrel assembly that may have a small thickness and a photographing apparatus including the lens barrel assembly.
2. Related Art
A lens barrel assembly that is mounted on photographing apparatuses, such as digital still cameras (DSCs), digital video cameras, and the like, adjusts a distance between lens groups, thereby implementing an optical system having various focal lengths. Since an optical system of a camera can be converted into a wide-angle lens or a telephoto lens by using the lens barrel assembly, a user can perform a photographing operation at various viewing angles from his/her standing position without moving.
As compact DSCs require a high-performance 5-times zooming function, for example, the lens barrel assembly is required to have a small thickness and a high-performance zooming function.
In order to adjust a distance between lens groups, a relative position of barrels in the lens barrel assembly that support the lens groups is changed. Driving devices, such as a motor and a gear, are used to move the barrels. Since the length of the gear that rotates the barrels is required to correspond to a moving distance of the barrels, there is a limitation in minimizing the thickness of a photographing apparatus.
FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a structure of a lens barrel assembly, according to the related art.
FIG. 1 schematically illustrates an operation of a lens barrel of a lens barrel assembly, according to the related art disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,751,126. U.S. Pat. No. 7,751,126 discloses the configuration of a motor and a gear that rotate a barrel, the gear being installed on a surface of the barrel.
Referring to FIG. 1, a gear 511 is fixedly installed at an outer peripheral surface of a barrel 510, and a drive gear 520 is installed at an outside area of the barrel 510. As illustrated in FIG. 1, if a stroke length of the barrel 510 is S0, the drive gear 520 needs to rotate the gear 511 while maintaining the contact with the gear 511 at the outer peripheral surface of the barrel 51. Thus, the drive gear 520 is required to have a length L0 according to the stroke S0.
As described above, in the lens barrel assembly according to the related art, a gear 511 is fixedly installed at an outer peripheral surface of the lens barrel 510 that is moved. Thus, a photographing apparatus including the lens barrel assembly is required to have a thickness corresponding to the length of the drive gear 520. Thus, the stroke length of the lens barrel 510 and the length of the drive gear 520 are limitations in minimizing the thickness of the photographing apparatus.